Everything you need to know about the Hero Journey in Clash of Clans. Learn how hero points, equipment nodes, ore chests, and the equipment floor work to boost your progression.
The June 2026 update introduced the Hero Journey — a permanent progression track that rewards you for every single hero level you've ever upgraded. Whether you're a fresh TH7 unlocking the Barbarian King or a maxed TH18 veteran, the Hero Journey retroactively recognizes your progress and hands out ore, epic equipment, skins, and more.
Here's everything you need to know.
What Is the Hero Journey?
The Hero Journey is a milestone-based reward track accessed through the Hero Hall. Think of it as a giant checklist: upgrade your heroes, earn points, unlock rewards.
A few key things that set it apart from other Clash features:
It's permanent. This isn't a seasonal pass or limited-time event. The track is always available.
It's retroactive. Existing players received credit for every hero level they'd already completed when the update launched.
It rewards all hero upgrades equally. It doesn't matter whether you push your Barbarian King from 90→91 or your Minion Prince from 1→2 — both earn exactly one point.
How Hero Points Work
The system is dead simple: every hero level = 1 hero point. Unlocking a hero at level 1 counts as 1 point for that unlock.
Your total hero points are the sum of all your home village hero levels across all six heroes:
Hero
Availability
Barbarian King
TH7+
Archer Queen
TH9+
Grand Warden
TH11+
Royal Champion
TH13+
Minion Prince
TH15+
Dragon Duke
TH17+
A TH12 player with a level 65 King, level 65 Queen, and level 40 Warden would have 170 hero points (65 + 65 + 40). Upgrade any of those heroes by one level, and you're at 171.
Pro Tip: It doesn't matter which hero you upgrade — all hero levels contribute equally. Focus on whichever hero upgrade is cheapest or fastest if you just want to push your track forward.
Track Structure
The Hero Journey contains approximately 107 milestones spread across the entire hero-leveling experience from TH7 through TH18.
Progress is gated by your Hero Hall level, which itself requires a specific Town Hall level. At TH12, for example, the maximum reachable hero point total is 210 — you physically can't progress further on the track until you upgrade your Town Hall and Hero Hall.
This gating means you'll naturally hit walls where the track pauses until your base catches up. That's by design — it prevents lower-TH players from being locked out of rewards they can't use yet.
Reward Types
The track offers six distinct reward categories. Here's what you'll find at each type of milestone.
Ore Rewards
Flat amounts of Shiny Ore, Glowy Ore, and Starry Ore awarded at various milestones throughout the track. These are straightforward — reach the milestone, claim the ore. No quests, no timers.
Epic Equipment Nodes
Roughly 10 equipment nodes are scattered across the track, each assigned to a specific hero. When you reach one, you're awarded the oldest epic equipment you don't own for that hero.
If you already own every epic for the assigned hero, you receive 50 Starry Ore as a fallback. More on equipment nodes in the deep dive below.
Hero Quest Chests (37 Total)
These are the track's most valuable — and most involved — rewards. Each chest node triggers a quest you must actively complete. Details in the dedicated section below.
Majestic Hero Skins
A brand-new cosmetic skin set unlocked through the track. The Majestic Dragon Duke skin is the final reward at the end of the journey — a fitting capstone for players who've maxed every hero.
Consumable Items
Useful acceleration items sprinkled throughout:
Book of Heroes ×2
Hero Potion ×4
Pet Potion ×2
Morsel ×6
Resources
Elixir and Dark Elixir milestones appear at various points. These come with a 1-week claim timer — make sure you collect them before they expire.
Equipment Nodes Deep Dive
Each of the ~10 equipment nodes on the track is locked to a specific hero. When you reach one, the game checks which epic equipment you're missing for that hero and awards the oldest one by release date.
So if you hit a Barbarian King equipment node and you already own Giant Gauntlet but nothing else, you'll receive Spiky Ball. If you own all four King epics, you get 50 Starry Ore instead.
Pre-Leveled Equipment
Equipment from track nodes doesn't arrive at level 1. It comes pre-leveled — the further along the track you are, the higher the starting level. This is a massive ore savings, especially for late-game equipment that would otherwise cost thousands of ore to level up from scratch.
Pro Tip: Plan your equipment strategy around event shop rotations. If an epic you want is available cheaply in an event shop, buy it there — then the track node will award you the next epic in line, potentially one that's harder to obtain.
Equipment Floor
The Equipment Floor is a separate mechanic from equipment nodes, and it's easy to confuse the two.
Here's how it works: if your existing epic equipment is under-leveled relative to your track progress, the game automatically boosts it to a minimum level. This "floor" is calculated per hero based on your cumulative hero levels.
For example, if your track progress implies a floor of level 12, any epic equipment you own that's below level 12 gets bumped up — for free. Further along the track, this floor can reach level 15 or higher.
The ore savings are enormous. Upgrading a single epic equipment piece from level 1→15 normally costs approximately:
Ore Type
Cost (1→15)
Starry Ore
~60
Glowy Ore
~1,300
Shiny Ore
~20,000
The equipment floor effectively skips that entire cost for under-leveled gear. If you've been neglecting certain equipment pieces, the Hero Journey has your back.
Pro Tip: Use ClashVault's Ore Calculator to see exactly how much ore you're saving (or still need) after the equipment floor kicks in.
Hero Quest Chests
The 37 ore chest quests are the Hero Journey's biggest long-term ore source — but they require active play.
How They Work
Reach a chest milestone on the track
A quest activates — typically "earn X stars in multiplayer battles using [specific hero]"
Complete the quest within 14 days
Claim the chest within another 14 days after completion
Each quest awards 3 chests: one Shiny, one Glowy, one Starry
Chest Values by Town Hall
Chest values scale dramatically with your Town Hall level. Waiting to open chests at a higher TH can be significantly more valuable:
TH
Shiny (avg)
Glowy (avg)
Starry (avg)
7
300
14
2
8
350
17
2
9
400
20
3
10
600
30
4
11
800
40
5
12
1,000
50
10
13
1,200
60
14
14
1,425
70
30
15
1,650
80
35
16
1,850
90
45
17
2,050
90
50
18
2,050
100
55
Overstacking Rules
Chests can push your ore storage above its maximum — but only once. If your storage is already overstacked from a previous chest, any additional ore beyond your cap is lost permanently. Claim strategically and spend ore before opening your next chest.
Catch-Up Mechanic
Players flagged by the game as "very far behind" in hero progression may receive increased ore amounts from quest chests. This is an automatic catch-up mechanic — you don't need to opt in.
Migration: What Happened at Launch
When the June 2026 update dropped, the game automatically placed every existing player onto the Hero Journey track based on their current hero levels. Here's what was — and wasn't — auto-claimed:
Reward Type
Auto-Claimed?
Notes
Ore (flat rewards)
✅ Yes
One-time storage overflow allowed
Epic Equipment Nodes
✅ Yes
No Starry Ore fallback during migration
Majestic Skins
✅ Yes
Unlocked instantly
Consumable Items
✅ Yes
Books, potions, morsels
Resources
✅ Yes
Elixir and Dark Elixir
Equipment Floor
✅ Yes
Applied automatically
Quest Chests
❌ No
Must be earned going forward
The key takeaway: quest-based ore chests were not auto-claimed. Even if you were a max-level player on day one, you still need to complete all 37 quests manually. This is a significant amount of ore left on the table if you don't actively work through them.
Also note that equipment nodes during migration awarded gear but did not give the 50 Starry Ore fallback if you already owned all epics. The fallback only applies during natural track progression after the update.
Tips for Maximizing the Hero Journey
Keep upgrading heroes. Every level counts. Even if a hero isn't meta-relevant right now, that level still pushes your track forward and unlocks rewards.
Complete ore chest quests promptly. The 14-day completion timer is generous, but don't let quests pile up. Expired quests mean lost ore — permanently.
Think about TH timing for chests. If you're close to upgrading your Town Hall, consider whether it's worth waiting to claim chests at the higher TH level for better ore scaling. The jump from TH13 (14 Starry) to TH14 (30 Starry) is particularly dramatic.
Plan equipment nodes around event shops. If you can buy a cheap epic from an event, do it before reaching the equipment node — you'll get the next epic in line for free from the track instead.
Use ClashVault's tools:
Hero Catch-Up Calculator — see exactly how far your heroes are from max and how many points you're leaving on the table
Ore Calculator — plan your ore economy around equipment upgrades and track rewards
TL;DR
Hero Journey is a permanent reward track tied to hero upgrades — it's not seasonal or time-limited
Every hero level = 1 point toward milestone rewards, regardless of which hero you upgrade
Founder of ClashVault & competitive Clasher since 2014. Active TH16 & TH17 player focused on data-driven progression modeling, ore planning algorithms, and reverse-engineering upgrade dynamics.
